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Sunday - February 12, 2006

Game 6: Rice at Texas (Houston College Classic)

Wow! I hope y'all got to see that! Texas won on a walk-off 2-run homer by Kyle Russell. My new hero! Heh. Kyle was pinch hitting for Clay Van Hook with two outs. He fouled the first pitch off. "C'mon, Kyle," I thought, "you can hit a homer. C'mon!" And, he did. To the opposite field. His second at-bat as a Longhorn. Wow. The team was waiting for him at home plate and I'm not sure he actually hit the plate as he dove into the team. How exciting for him. Again, I say: wow!

Final score: Texas wins 5-4.

Rice scored one in the 3rd. Texas answered in the bottom of the 3rd and scored two to pull ahead in the 5th. The Horns seemed to be cruising along until the 7th. Kyle McCulloch, who started the game, got into a bit of trouble with two outs in the top of the 7th but worked his way out and was replaced in the 8th. He threw a nice game: 7 innings, 5 hits (1 double), 1 earned run, 3 walks, 9 strikeouts, and 2 hit batters.

That's when the scary stuff started happening. Kenn Kasparek came on in the 8th and got two quick outs. Okay. That wasn't scary. That was nice. But then he got into trouble. He gave up a single, a walk, and another single to allow Rice to pull within one. The situation: runners at 1st and 2nd, 2 outs, full count to the batter (Bramhall). So, the runners were on the move as Kenn threw the next pitch. Bramhall hit it to the left side. Bradley Suttle came up with the ball and threw across the diamond. Chance Wheeless wasn't able to dig it out. Batter safe. The runner from 2b scored easily since he was already at 3b by the time Bradley threw the ball to 1b. Texas sent Kyle Walker in to pitch. He got a strikeout for the final out of the inning. Whew. In the bottom of the 8th, Texas went down in order.

In the top of the 9th, Kyle struck out the first batter but hit the next two. Yes, really. He struck the next batter out, though. Whew. But, wait. The situation: runners at 1st and 2nd, 2 outs, 0-1 count to the batter (Savery). Savery hit a chopper to the third baseman. Yes, again. Bradley fielded it with a bit of trouble but had time. However, he overthrew (!) Chance Wheeless. The runner from 2b scored the go-ahead run. The runner from 1b and the batter were stopped at 3b and 2b because the ball went out of play. Kyle struck the next batter out (looking) on three pitches. Texas behind 4-3.

In the bottom of the 9th, Preston Clark struck out swinging. Bradley Suttle up. He walked. Bryan Herrera went in to pinch run. Preston Pehrson pinch hit for Brett Lewis. He struck out. Then, Kyle Russell did the pinch hitting thing for Clay Van Hook. I sure do hope this Freshman gets to do this sort of thing again and again. It's a lot to live up to over the next few years, though. Poor kid. Heh.

One final note: yes...there are three players on the Texas team named Kyle. And, yes, they all played today. And, yes, they were all instrumental in the win. A couple of years ago all the players were named Ryan or Jason. Now it's Kyle. Hmmmm...

Posted by Joanna at 12:34 AM